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Emilie Gerber is the founder and CEO of Six Eastern, a top PR agency that\u2019s worked with over 100 tech companies, from stealth startups to publicly traded companies. Before starting her own firm, she worked at Uber, where she led PR for the business development team and B2B programs. Prior to that, she worked at Box on product communications, with a focus on product launches and partnership announcements. In our conversation, we discuss:

\u2022 Why, and when, getting press is worth your time

\u2022 Common misconceptions about the impact press can have

\u2022 The second-order effects of press

\u2022 Which areas each publication (TechCrunch, Axios, The Verge, etc.) cares most about

\u2022 How to craft your pitch

\u2022 How to find and reach reporters

\u2022 How pitching press is different from pitching customers

\u2022 The effectiveness of direct communication through social media versus traditional press

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Brought to you by:

\u2022 Sprig\u2014Build a product people love

\u2022 Eppo\u2014Run reliable, impactful experiments

\u2022 Vanta\u2014Automate compliance. Simplify security.

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-pr-emilie-gerber

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Where to find Emilie Gerber:

\u2022 Substack: http://onbackgroundintel.substack.com

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilie-gerber-59612230/

\u2022 Website: https://sixeastern.com/

\u2022 Email: hello@sixeastern.com

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Where to find Lenny:

\u2022 Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

\u2022 X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Emilie\u2019s background

(04:56) The value of press and second-order effects

(13:00) When press is not worth your time

(17:01) Different publications and their suitability

(25:36) Avoiding negative stories

(27:23) Finding aligned podcasts and awards

(31:12) Advice for reaching out to reporters

(37:23) Controversial pitches

(41:16) Avoiding category creation

(43:26) Examples of pitches that have worked well

(53:32) Pitching to Lenny

(55:46) Effective pitching strategies

(57:45) Improving pitch announcements

(01:03:01) Press releases

(01:07:06) Crafting a compelling story

(01:09:43) Traditional press vs. newsletters, podcasts, and social media

(01:15:50) Building a social media presence

(01:17:51) How to get a Morning Brew feature

(01:19:32) Advice on choosing a PR agency

(01:22:25) Timing and budget for PR

(01:25:39) Lightning round

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Referenced:

\u2022 Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/

\u2022 Who is Lenny Rachitsky? And what does he know that you don\u2019t about making millions writing online?: https://www.fastcompany.com/90940453/lenny-rachitsky-newsletter-podcast-job-board-substack

\u2022 42-year-old brings in an average of $41,000 a month from his podcast and works on it just 5 hours a week: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/lenny-rachitsky-podcast-brings-in-more-than-500k-a-year-heres-how.html

\u2022 How This Newsletter Writer Got More Than 300,000 Subscribers, and Now Makes \u201cSignificantly More\u201d Than He Did at His Day Job: https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/how-this-newsletter-writer-got-more-than-300000/447172

\u2022 Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/

\u2022 Contraline: https://www.contraline.com/

\u2022 Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/

\u2022 TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/

\u2022 Axios: https://www.axios.com/

\u2022 Fortune: https://fortune.com/

\u2022 Term Sheet: https://fortune.com/tag/term-sheet/

\u2022 The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/

\u2022 Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/

\u2022 New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/

\u2022 Found podcast: https://techcrunch.com/tag/found/

\u2022 Equity podcast: https://techcrunch.com/tag/equity-podcast/

\u2022 VentureBeat: https://venturebeat.com/

\u2022 Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/

\u2022 Clockwise: https://www.getclockwise.com

\u2022 Shopify deleted 322,000 hours of meetings. Should the rest of us be jealous?: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/15/1156804295/shopify-delete-meetings-zoom-virtual-productivity

\u2022 Shopify canceled all recurring meetings. Should you too?: https://www.getclockwise.com/blog/shopify-cancels-meetings

\u2022 Shopify\u2019s new meeting cost calculator is well intentioned\u2014but it\u2019s not addressing the issue: https://www.fastcompany.com/90930137/shopifys-new-meeting-cost-calculator-is-well-intentioned-but-its-not-addressing-the-issue

\u2022 Matt Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/voxmatt/

\u2022 Ramp: https://ramp.com/welcome

\u2022 Corporate card start-up Ramp targets Bill.com with free payments software: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/26/corporate-cards-ramp-targets-billcom-with-free-payments-software.html

\u2022 Bill: https://www.bill.com/

\u2022 Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp-became-the-fastest-growing-saas-startup-of-all-time-geoff-charl/

\u2022 Column Tax: https://www.columntax.com/

\u2022 Propel: https://www.joinpropel.com/

\u2022 Gamma: https://gamma.app/

\u2022 Gamma brings in $7M to bring the slide deck into the 21st century: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/28/gamma-brings-in-7m-to-bring-the-slide-deck-into-the-21st-century/

\u2022 NewBank: https://www.newbankusa.com/

\u2022 Backed by a16z, Relay races to market with Zapier in its crosshairs: https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/11/relay-a16z-zapier-google/

\u2022 Zapier: https://zapier.com/

\u2022 Rajiv Ayyangar\u2019s thread on X about tag lines: https://twitter.com/rajivayyangar/status/1758179077629100482

\u2022 Entropy: https://entropytechnologydesign.com/

\u2022 Money 20/20: https://www.money2020.com/

\u2022 Jim Bankoff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbankoff/

\u2022 Ramping Up: https://www.notboring.co/p/ramping-up

\u2022 Aaron Levie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boxaaron/

\u2022 Aaron Levie on X: https://twitter.com/levie

\u2022 Duolingo on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo

\u2022 Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/

\u2022 Tech Brew: https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/

\u2022 HR Brew: https://www.hr-brew.com/

\u2022 Mark Zuckerberg on Morning Brew Daily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQqsvRHjas4&t=1309s

\u2022 How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

\u2022 The Walking Dead on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70177057

\u2022 Yellowjackets on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/yellowjackets/

\u2022 The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us

\u2022 Apple Vision Pro: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro

\u2022 TNB Tech Minute: Startup Perplexity Challenges Google With AI Search: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/tnb-tech-minute-startup-perplexity-challenges-google-with-ai-search/984362d5-a8f0-48b4-8b55-ad7e570a74d2

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.